Eternity
by KatanaNoNeko
Summary: "Setting her stuff down, Lucy had approached his bedroom. The door had squeaked open, and she'd watched as Natsu slammed shut a book he'd been looking at and darted out of his desk chair. She'd noticed how red his eyes were but he was quick to grab her in a hug and bury his face in her neck to hide it." Nalu AU
1. Chapter 1

**This monster of a fic took forever to do ahaha**

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Lucy groaned as she awoke, the room dark and the clock on Natsu's night stand reading the early hour of 2:18. She could feel Natsu's hot breath against her neck and his warm arms wrapped around her chest.

Lucy had never felt so content around anyone before. She was so comfortable with him, he made everything feel so easy, like everything she would ever need was right here. If she could just stay like this, held tightly in his arms, for all eternity, Lucy could imagine being content with only that.

She knew she should just snuggle back against her boyfriend, try to fall back asleep, but she didn't feel a bit tired.

Her eyes glanced around, and when they fell on Natsu's desk across the room, she recalled his strange behavior when she'd arrived that evening.

She'd walked in the door to his apartment and called his name, usually replied to with him bounding to the living room and greeting her ecstatically, but there had been no such response that time.

"Natsu?" she'd called again. Setting her stuff down, Lucy had approached his bedroom. The door had squeaked open, and she'd watched as Natsu slammed shut a book he'd been looking at and darted out of his desk chair. She'd noticed how red his eyes were but he was quick to grab her in a hug and bury his face in her neck to hide it. She might've been imagining it, but it had felt like he was holding her tighter than nornal. He'd refused to say anything when she'd tried to ask what happened and was avoiding her questions, but she was anxious and concerned and curious over the situation.

She'd noticed the book before, but she'd only ever seen the cover. It looked like it might be a sort of scrapbook or photo album, but after Lucy inquired about it before, Natsu had tensed and gotten a bit defensive, just like this evening.

Usually he kept it under his pillow, but after she started sleeping over so often (really, the only reason she hadn't just moved in yet was because she still had a few months on her lease), he'd moved it underneath the mattress. She'd thought about looking at it, finding out what secret he was guarding so heavily, but neither place was easy to get a book from while Natsu was sleeping on them. Besides, she should trust him, right? He was allowed to have privacy.

But she wanted to know why her boyfriend had been crying that afternoon. It worried her, and she felt a bit hurt that he didn't tell her what it was he was so depressed over.

The book was sitting on his desk at this very moment. All she had to do was go over and open it.

And before she could even _try_ to tell herself not to, Lucy was climbing carefully out of bed and tiptoeing to the desk.

It was just a plain, old, scrapbook, from the cover. It was a bit worn out, and some of the pages were sticking out the sides like they were just sitting inside the cover without being attached to the spine, but there was nothing ridiculously special about the appearance.

Maybe it was just photos of his family? He'd told her he didn't really have any left, but she'd found it wasn't much of a touchy subject for him. Natsu had told her plenty of stories about his parents, his cousins, his grandparents, his aunts and uncles… So if it was as simple as family photos, she didn't think he'd be so protective and secretive about the scrapbook.

She glanced back at her boyfriend, still sleeping peacefully on the bed.

Lucy carefully opened the cover.

Pressed flower petals. A coin, broken into halves. A swatch of blue cloth. A twig of wheat. Unintelligible notes with arrows pointing to the objects. The next page had buttons and a feather. Another had a hair ribbon and a thin chain necklace. More and more pages of seemingly random objects and faded notes she couldn't decipher.

A doodle of a cat. More leaves and flowers. A train ticket. A cloth napkin. A tea bag.

Tear stains.

And a photo.

A very old one, obviously vintage.

A very old, Victorian photo of what was unmistakably she and Natsu.

Lucy didn't know what to think as she stared at the faces smiling up from the book.

She turned the page and found more random objects and scribbled words. Several pages later, and there was another photo. This one was still black and white, and also definitely she and Natsu again. More tear stains dotted the paper.

Lucy felt dizzy as a headache started beating at her skull. Why didn't she remember taking these photos with him? Why did they appear so old, with wilted edges and somewhat-scratched up images!?

She kept turning pages, until she got to paper that was certainly not as aged as the previous ones.

A movie stub. A photo of her in a sparkly party dress. One of she and Natsu dancing. Another mess of flower petals. More random items and notes to go along with them. Tears.

A photo of she and Natsu sharing a milkshake at a restaurant bar. Of her kissing his cheek. A printed poem taken out of a book. Of a house, with the two of them smiling and standing in front of it, looking like it could be straight out of a 50s sitcom. A key. Another bit of cloth. Some other seemingly frivolous objects. An abundance of watery stains.

And then a bombardment of photos she recognised. Photos she remembered taking with Natsu. Mementos of things she remembered doingwith Natsu. A receipt from their first official date at that coffee shop. The ribbon she'd insisted on wrapping around his wrist when that cat scratched him. A Hershey's Kiss wrapper from the first night they'd been intimate.

"Lu-cy?" Lucy squeaked in surprise as Natsu groaned on the bed. She slowly turned her head and watched as Natsu blinked his eyes and slowly realized where she was standing and what she was doing.

Natsu scrambled out of bed, tripping over the blankets and darting to the desk.

He stared at the open scrapbook, trying to think of what to say, while Lucy stared at him, silently begging for answers.

He looked back up to her, and wide eyes met wide eyes.

"I-" Natsu closed his mouth and glanced back at the desk. "I- can explain."

They were both silent for several long moments.

"I love you, Luce," he finally said to start off. "Just… Please remember that before you start freaking out…"

"Tell me what's going on, Natsu," Lucy demanded quietly, her voice barely above a whisper.

"I… I guess the easiest way to tell you is to just… Tell you," he chuckled nervously. "I'm- we're- I'm immortal."

Lucy's eyes widened while her brows creased. "How?"

"I mean- I don't know! I just am! And so are you! Or at least, you were." Natsu winced and looked away from her gaze. "I don't know if you still are or not."

"Natsu, what do you mean!?"

"We're immortal people. We never age after a certain point, and we can't die- without outside force." Lucy quirked her brow, not understanding and finding all of this hard to believe. "I know this sounds fake, it's not!" Lucy looked away, not wanting to tell him that he sounded completely delusional.

Natsu groaned and flipped the scrapbook to the first page. "Here, I'll- I'll tell you the whole story."

"Back in, like, medieval times I think you'd call it, we met. The details are kinda fuzzy- I mean, that was a long time ago!- We fell in love pretty quickly, and at some point, we even got married. That's what these things are all from," he commented, gesturing towards the page.

"I've tried to keep it preserved but like I said, this stuff is super old. That cloth was from the dress you wore, that you looked so beautiful in, Lucy! I don't think that's a sight I can ever forget! And I couldn't afford a ring, so we split a coin in half instead. It was the wedding tradition back then; only nobles would ever give each other jewelry."

"Natsu, the- the immortality?" she urged him, not wanting to hear about a wedding she couldn't remember being a part of.

He winced again, knowing she still didn't quite believe a word he was saying. "You'd been around for almost 70 years and I, just over 50 before we met, and neither of us looked a day past 20. I remember being terrified of the fact that you'd eventually grow old and die and I would have to keep living without you."

"It took me a while, but at one point, I realized you weren't aging anymore, either. You constantly looked as beautiful and young as the day we met! When I mentioned it to you, you came out and admitted that you were immortal, weeping and scared because you thought I'd accuse you of witchcraft! But I just laughed and told you that I was the same way."

"We probably shoulda been more freaked out," he chuckled, "about the fact that we were immortal for some reason, but we were young and in love and we were just happy that we had all of eternity together!"

Lucy didn't like the soft, warm smile on his lips as he remembered times spent with a woman that wasn't her. Or at least a _Lucy _that wasn't her. She moved to him and clutched his scarf desperately, feeling jealous of this woman he was obviously completely in love with. Lucy felt utterly ridiculous over it, when that woman was supposedly her, but she was confused and overwhelmed and part of her wished she'd never opened that _stupid _scrapbook because then they'd still be cuddling in bed and still be _normal!_ "Don't- don't tell me the details," she requested shakily. "Just the important parts, so I understand what's going on."

Natsu pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I love you," he reminded her again. "I have never _stopped _loving you!"

"Natsu, please," she mumbled.

The man nodded and went to turn the pages until the first photo was smiling up at them. "Sometime in the- in the Victorian era, I think it's called, you were…" Natsu gulped. "You were killed."

Lucy suddenly went ice cold with the words despite Natsu's warm hold.

"Vampire hunters. We moved every ten years or so to try and keep people from finding out that we were, y'know, immortal, but these guys noticed and were convinced we were 'creatures of the night'," Lucy heard Natsu sniff and felt his body shake slightly. She was certain if she looked up, there'd be tears filling his eyes. "I was right there!" he choked on a cough. "I was right fucking there and that bastard stabbed you in the heart with a wooden stake!"

Lucy moved back a bit so she could reach a hand up to hold his cheek. "Natsu, if what you're saying is true, then I'm okay, right? I'm right here."

"I've never forgiven myself for letting you die, Luce," he told her. "I… I was so angry. And he attacked me next, and I couldn't hold back my anger and my grief and I ended up killing him." He was shaking in pent-up anger from the incident and Lucy rubbed her thumb against his cheek again to calm him down. "I don't regret it. He was a shitty guy that took a lot of innocent lives on nothing but suspicion."

"…What happened next?"

"I…" Natsu groaned as he let his fingers comb through her soft hair. "I was dealing with a lotta shit for a long time. I mean, I didn't think I would ever see you again, and we were kinda all each other had! Any other friends we made had to be left before too long and obviously we didn't have any of our family. I was on the brink of despair when…"

"When what?" she hesitantly urged him to continue.

"When I found you again," he answered. "I think it had been nearly half a century of wandering but I walked into a random town for, well, a night of drinking, because I'd been feeling particularly crappy at the time, and you were _there. _You were a bar maid at that tavern. You'd _reincarnated._"

Lucy felt a warm tingle run up and down her spine as she processed the information. "But wait…" She flipped a few more pages in the book. "This one looks like it was still Victorian, from before I… And this one is most certainly from the 20s. That was far more than fifty years, didn't we take any pictures while I was a bar maid?"

Natsu groaned and looked away. "I scared the shit out of you. I wasn't thinking at all! You were there, and I was just so damn excited to see you! Running up to you and kissing you and asking how on Earth you were alive didn't exactly get taken well…"

Natsu waited for her reaction, but Lucy just stared, frowning as she tried to comprehend everything he was telling her.

"You thought I was a creep, obviously. I mean, you didn't know who the hell I was! I was heartbroken that you didn't have any memories, but I was kinda hoping seeing me might make you remember your previous life, so I stuck around in that town. Only…"

"Only?"

"Only you died, _again, _I think only a week later. A fight got out of hand, a stool was thrown, and it hit you instead of its target. You were killed immediately by the blunt force trauma to your head."

Lucy rubbed a soothing hand on his shoulder again, already understanding how guilty he probably still felt over not keeping her safe for the second time.

"And of course I was depressed again over your death, but now I knew you could reincarnate! I might see you again, get another chance! And then in the twenties, I got that chance, but this time I didn't screw it up. I pretended I'd never met you and I tried so hard to reel back my emotions!" Natsu looked to the photos of them in the twenties. "Obviously it worked okay, because I'd gotten you to fall in love with me again…"

Lucy glanced back at the photo of her from the 20s. The photos on the next few pages were definitely from the 50s. She knew photos were somewhat limited then, but they surely would've taken at least one between the two different time periods.

"I died again, didn't I?" she asked. "In the 20s."

Natsu sighed sadly, running his hand through her hair again. "We were together for just over a year, and then-" he gulped as Lucy pressed a finger to his lips.

"I don't wanna hear the details about my death. It's… Chilling to hear that I've apparently lived and died in at least…" she counted on her fingers. "Four different lives, including the fifties."

"In the fifties, we were together for almost five years. It was the longest I'd gotten to spend with you since your first life. I kept thinking about proposing to you again, and even thought of telling you all this, but-"

"But I died again, I get it…"

Natsu nodded, but didn't say anything, shaking slightly again.

"I keep managing to find my reincarnating, immortal love of my life, only for her to die again after such a fleeting, short time. I'm starting to think I'm cursed." He let out a strained chuckle.

"You're the cursed one!?" Lucy replied. "I'm the one that keeps dying before I even turn 30! At least you remember everything! You know what the truth is! But I have to stand here and try to wrap my head around all this shit! I want to believe you, Natsu, but I just- I can't remember any of it happening!" Lucy hadn't planned on such an outburst, and she certainly hadn't planned on starting to cry, Natsu taking her in his arms and holding her as she sobbed against his chest. "I just-"

"I know, Luce. I can't imagine what you're feeling. This is a lot of information that doesn't make a whole lotta sense, but I really am not lying to you. I love you too much to lie to you!"

Lucy didn't say anything for a while, trying to sort out her thoughts.

"Do you, though?" she asked quietly.

"What?"

Lucy rubbed at her eyes and walked away from him, leaving his arms.

"Do you actually love me, Natsu? Or are you just in love with who you say I used to be?"

Natsu paused to ponder her question. "Lucy, I don't understand."

Lucy felt the tears fill her eyes again as frustration quickly welled up in her. She stared at Natsu almost accusingly as words tumbled out of her mouth.

"I don't know who I was before, Natsu, but right now, I'm Lucy Heartfilia! Do you love _Lucy Heartfilia!? _If you weren't immortal and we were just two normal people who met and went on dates, would you still love me!?"

Natsu looked pained at her question. "Lucy, I…" he grumbled as he tried to figure out the best way to say what he wanted. "Every time, _every single time_, I found you again in your new life, it was like I was living again, too. Everything you did, everything you _do_ just makes me fall in love all over again!"

Lucy looked away as tears starting streaming down her cheeks.

"I know that no matter what our circumstances are, I'd fall in love with you again. If we both died and were reborn and met once again, I can tell you with utmost certainty that I'd be just as desperate for you as I am right now. Except, you know, maybe with less baggage…"

His offhanded comment made Lucy snort, and she was glad to feel a bit of the tension release from the room.

Natsu carefully approached Lucy, hoping she'd let him hold her again. She was still looking away from him, and Natsu gently held her cheek. "I love you, Lucy. I love the way your nose crinkles when you laugh. I love how your cheeks puff out when you're annoyed at me. I love how much faith you have in your friends and family to be there for you, and you're always there in return. You like to have compassion and give people the benefit of the doubt, but you're mischievous, too. You like to have fun, and you have a mean kick. I could list off all the wonderful qualities I love about you for forever, Luce."

Lucy smiled and leaned against him, but she still had a billion worries and thoughts in the back of her head.

"How different _am _I, Natsu? I mean, I've had a lotta different lives since we met, and I grew up far differently in this one than my first one, I'm sure. Like I said, I have no idea who I was before…"

Natsu sighed and thought back to Lucy's other lives.

"You've always been 'Lucy', or some variation of it. In your first life it was 'Lucette', but I still called ya Luce. I think your name has just been regular Lucy every life since, though."

Lucy nodded her understanding.

"You've always looked the same, too," he continued, playing with a lock of her hair. "The same beautiful golden hair, the same warm, chocolate eyes…"

Lucy blushed at the compliments and laughed, "Yes, I did see the photos."

Natsu bopped her shoulder for her tease. "And yeah, the different ways you were raised did probably play into your personality at least a little bit. You were far less daring in the 50s than you ever were in your other lives, and I think you had a bit more of a rebellious nature in the 20s, too, than you did anytime else. But you've always had the same spirit, the same soul."

Lucy didn't know how to respond.

"Lucy, are we okay?" Natsu asked. "I mean, you're sure you don't think I'm a lunatic?"

"I mean, if it was anyone else, yeah, but it's you! You're _Natsu. _You're my best friend and I trust you, but at the same time…" Lucy sighed in frustration. "I don't think you're a lunatic, no."

"But…?" Natsu could tell something was still bugging her, not that he blamed her.

"As far as _I _know, what _my _memories tell me, we've only been together for two years, but according to your story, you've loved me for _at least _600!"

"And I'll love you for 600 more, what's your point?"

"_That's _my point! I'm not- We're- This is a two-year relationship and I can handle that! I can handle the fact that I'm starting to think about spending my life with you, think that I might really want to marry you and start a family in the future!" Natsu's eyes lit up at her admittions. "But I just don't know that I'm equipped to handle the fact that our relationship actually spans six centuries! That the guy I love is so unbelievably devoted to me that he's found me in every life I've lived!"

"Lucy-"

Lucy cut him off before he could say anything. "I want to swoon over the romance of it before I realize how much I might be hurting you by just _not knowing _about our history…"

Natsu groaned and sat down on the bed. "I'm not gonna lie, it does kinda hurt, Luce, knowing that you might never remember all we've done together. But it's okay, I can deal with it, as long as I have you."

"I _don't like _hurting you, Natsu. I don't want to," she replied, sitting next to him.

Natsu cupped her cheek. "It would absolutely _kill _me to lose you completely, Lucy."

Lucy nodded her understanding and leaned against his shoulder.

"If it makes you feel any better, I think you _were _starting to get your memories back in the 50s."

"Really!?" Lucy sat up, wide-eyed.

Natsu laughed. "Every once in a while, you told me about dreams you'd had about us, and every one of them was something that I remembered happening in one of your past lives. You just didn't realize what they were. You thought they were silly dreams and that was it."

Lucy's heart fluttered at the information. _She might remember her other reincarnations. _"Oh," she replied simply, not knowing what else to say. She leaned back against him, and Natsu swung his arm around her shoulder.

"Why were you crying?" She asked after a bit. "When I came home today. Er, yesterday," she added with a glance at the clock.

Natsu sighed. "It's the anniversary of your first death. Yesterday was."

"You mean you still remember the date? After all this time?" she asked quietly.

Natsu looked at her, horrified. "Of course I do! I remember every important date! I still remember the date of our wedding!"

Lucy laughed at his expression (although still cursing at that twinge of jealousy over the fact that _one version of her_ had gotten to call Natsu her husband) before recalling his answer to her question. "So that's why you were so adamant about wanting me to call into work today. You were scared something would happen."

"I'm always scared something's gonna happen. It's a side effect of watching you die four times, I'm sure. But yeah, I'm always more antsy on the deathiversaries."

"And it's why you were so damn gentle with me while we were having sex before bed."

Natsu snorted. "Yeah, it's why I was _cherishing _you during our _lovemaking."_

Lucy laughed again before a serious thought plagued her again. She bit her lip, contemplating whether to say it or not, but Natsu noticed.

"What's wrong?"

"Do you think I'm going to die again?" she asked quietly.

Natsu growled. "Not if I can fucking help it."

"I don't want to die again, Natsu. Not that I've found out all this. I don't want to have to start again. I don't want _you _to have to find me again."

"I told you, Luce," he insisted, grabbing her hand and holding it tight in his grasp. "_I'll be damned if I let you die even one more time._"

They both knew that Natsu's words didn't solve the issue, but Lucy understood the sentiment was there. She leaned up to kiss him, and Natsu didn't realize how much he'd wanted that symbol of reassurance until the tension in his shoulders was released with the feeling of her lips against his.

"I want to sleep right now," she admitted softly when she moved back. "My head is spinning and I'm tired."

Natsu chuckled. "Are you okay?"

Lucy smiled and nodded. "It's a lot to take in, and I know I'm probably gonna be… weird for a while-"

"You're already weird," he snickered. Lucy whined at him.

"_Anyways, _I still love you, immortal and possibly cursed or not. I just know now that our relationship is a lot more complicated than I thought."

Natsu grazed her cheek with his fingers as he kissed her again. "I love you, too."

Lucy moved to crawl under the disturbed blankets on their bed, pulling on Natsu's arm to bring him beside her. Natsu grinned, ecstatic that her feelings and their closeness hadn't changed even through the discovery of his secret. Wrapping himself around her, Natsu grinned against the back of her head, his nose buried in her hair to take in the scent that still smelled exactly as it had 600 years ago.

And Natsu couldn't stand the thought of being without it ever again.

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**Thank you for reading! I thought this would just be a one-shot, but I actually came up with something else to write for it, so I guess watch out for that, haha. This'll probably be like the Monarchy AU, in that I'll keep it on "complete" and just write more for this AU when I feel like it**


	2. Chapter 2

"Natsu..." Lucy gasped when he wouldn't cease kissing her. "Come on, Natsu, we've got work to do."

Natsu whined. "Aww, I'd rather stay in bed all day."

Lucy chuckled. "You'd always rather stay in bed."

Natsu groaned when Lucy finally pulled herself away from him, determined not to fall under the spell of his kisses again. He stared after her from the bed as she moved to her closet and pulled out a polka-dotted dress. Lucy flushed under the gaze of his dark eyes.

"Stop staring at me!" she cried, hesitant to pull off her nightgown to get dressed.

"It's not like I haven't seen you naked before," he grinned, laughing when her face burned redder.

"Well- it's different when we're in the middle of- It's more embarrassing when I'm just getting dressed!"

"Fine, fine," he responded, turning over in the bed and burying his face in the blankets. "But I like seeing you, Luce!"

_Not as much as I like seeing you. _Lucy felt her blush grow but something familiar tingle warmly in her stomach as the stray thought came along with the sight of Natsu's only-boxer-clad behind.

Lucy quickly loosened her nightgown, knowing her boyfriend wouldn't stay still for long.

She hummed as she pulled her dress over her head. It felt so cheap to think of Natsu as her _boyfriend_. They'd been dating for five years, they bought a house together... They might as well be married. She had to wonder why Natsu hadn't just proposed to her already. She would certainly say 'yes'. She probably would've told him yes even two years ago! She _wanted _to be his wife, she wanted to have a beautiful wedding with a gorgeous gown and all their friends and family. And then they could even start a family of their own!

So why hadn't he proposed yet!?

It made her a little frustrated.

She finished tieing the bow at her waist as she called for Natsu to get out of bed again.

"Come on, we still haven't finished unpacking all our stuff!" she told him while he groaned and climbed out of bed. Really, they'd lived here a week and the small house was _still_ filled with boxes!

Natsu surprised her as he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her in a hug, leaning his head against her shoulder. He seemed... Tense, for some reason.

"Natsu, are you okay?"

"Yeah, 'm fine," he mumbled. "I just can't believe how much time I've gotten to spend with you," he laughed almost painfully.

"We're in love, most people in love spend time together," she replied, confused. Natsu just nodded before letting her go and spinning her around with one hand. He had a bright grin on his face, leaving Lucy to wonder if his melancholy from moments before had just been something she imagined.

Natsu kissed her forehead before moving away to pull some pants on, tripping over his feet as he did so.

"Come on, you dope," Lucy laughed. "Let's go make breakfast."

"Pancakes!" he eagerly shouted.

"That sounds good, let's do it!" she replied with a pump of her fist.

"Yesss!" Natsu yelled excitedly, grabbing her hand and yanking her to their kitchen, still filled with boxes while they were in the process of moving in.

Lucy opened up one of said boxes. "Do you remember where we packed the frying pan?" she asked, rifling through the contents.

"Uh... Nope."

Lucy snorted and started to pull various other dishes out. "Well I guess now's as good a time as any to get the rest of these boxes put awa-"

"Never mind, I found it!" he shouted, taking the frying pan out of the box he'd just opened. "I guess we don't have to unpack yet after all!"

Lucy crossed her arms in front of her. "We've still gotta put them away! You've gotten me to put it off for too long, Natsu! I'm sick of the boxes!"

Natsu snickered. "Hey, we had to christen the house!"

The girl flushed brightly again. "I- we didn't do it _that _much!"

He yanked her into him and kissed her. "Yet," he responded after pulling away, voice purposefully husky and eyes full of humor at just how easy it could be to embarrass Lucy.

Lucy's eyes were wide and lips slightly open and puckered after being surprised by his kiss. "I-" she snapped out of her stupor and stomped away from him. "Do you want pancakes or not, Mister!?" she squeaked.

Natsu laughed. "Of course I do!"

She poked his nose. "Then go get the milk off the stoop!"

He kissed her cheek before leaving to do just that.

Lucy sighed dreamily as she got the other ingredients out of the cupboards and ice box. Maybe they weren't married, but he certainly made her happy. Every kiss he gave made her feel warm and elated, even after so many years of receiving them.

"Ooh, we've still got chocolate chips!?" Natsu observed when he set the milk bottles next to the flour.

"We d- that's not an invitation for you to eat them!" Lucy scolded, seeing him pour a handful of the chocolate in his mouth.

Natsu just gave that _stupid__, __charming_ grin again.

"Give me those before you eat them all," she told him with a laugh, and he complied. Lucy started mixing the ingredients together while Natsu wrapped his arms around her midsection and laid on her shoulder again.

Lucy adored his affection, but... "Natsu, you're making it hard to stir."

"C'mon, lemme hug you," he pouted.

Lucy chuckled and nuzzled against him. "I love you," she reminded him.

Natsu smiled. "I love you, too."

And while Lucy was looking at him with a smile, Natsu was dipping a finger in the pancake batter and sticking it in his mouth.

"Natsu, wait for me to cook it!"

He just snickered again, then took the bowl from her, moving to the stove. "I'll cook them, you just go sit down, okay?"

Lucy pressed a kiss to his cheek in thanks. "I'll go check the mail."

Natsu squeezed her hand before she went out the door. Lucy sighed in content happiness again as she crossed their new front lawn that was in desperate need of some grass seed, to the mailbox. Standing at the curb of the often-quiet road as she opened the mailbox, Lucy rifled through the contents.

Several bills already (_we just moved in!)_, a flyer for a community event at the park (_hmm, looks like it could be fun! I should tell Natsu...),_ and a letter from her mother (_I wonder if she's still worried about me living with a man out of wedlock. Probably, but I suppose I can't blame her.)_

Lucy slit open the envelope and smiled as she read her mother's words. The older woman _had _brought up concerns of Natsu and Lucy not being married, but it was less about the house and more that she wanted to have grandkids to spoil. She also brought up that they missed Lucy, out of their home for the first time, and off on the other side of town in a new house.

Lucy would have to remember to visit them soon. She missed them, too, as excited as she was to live with Natsu. Maybe she could ask Mama for advice on how to get Natsu to propose!

The squealing of tires interrupted her thoughts.

Lucy looked up to see a car careening wildly down the road.

Before she could comprehend what was happening, pain was blooming through her.

A split-second moment of clarity told her she was now on the ground and there was _far _too much blood around her. She heard Natsu screaming her name and his feet stomping as he ran across the lawn.

And then there was only darkness.

**oOo**

Lucy darted up in her bed. She ran to the bathroom, throwing up into the toilet as tears started streaming down her cheeks.

It had been just over three months since Natsu had told her everything.

"Lucy, what's wrong!?" Natsu shouted in concern as he ran in after her, the noise and sudden loss of her in their bed startling him out of sleep.

"I-" Lucy choked on her tears and coughed into the bowl. "It was-" She groaned in pain as her stomach lurched again.

Natsu leaned down and pulled her into his arms. "Calm down, Luce. You need to calm down."

Heeding his words, Lucy sobbed against his chest until she was sensible enough to talk. Her tears lasted for several minutes, and even once the last one was soaked into his skin, she still couldn't talk. She couldn't put words to what happened.

"Lucy, what's wrong?" he asked firmly.

"I... My..." Lucy gulped, "_Car_."

Natsu's eyes widened as the dots in his head connected.

"You died in the fifties?"

Lucy nodded against his chest.

Natsu combed his fingers through her hair to soothe her.

"He was drunk," Natsu explained. "One of our neighbors. Apparently he and his wife fought the night before and he'd run off to drink twice his weight in booze. He was trying to get back home when it happened." Lucy noted how much Natsu was shaking.

"I- didn't realize I was dreaming-" Lucy let out another sob. "It started when we were waking up. I was just _there _and we were _so happy._"

"We were," Natsu replied. "Like I said, it was the longest we'd been together since your first life."

"What happened- after?"

Natsu sighed longly. "The only reason I stuck around for as long as I did was because of your family. I figured I owed it to them to let them yell at me after I broke their trust and let you die."

Lucy didn't say anything.

"Your dad was pissed off. He screamed at me for what felt like hours about how I'd 'stolen his little girl'. Told me it was my fault you were dead. Refused to let me go to the funeral."

"He didn't let you go to my _funeral_!?

Natsu shook his head. "I almost went anyways, but I ran off before they had it. Just couldn't deal with everything, you know the drill with me."

"Oh, if he were still alive, I'd give him a piece of my-" a small laugh from Natsu interrupted her rant. "...How did my mother react?"

"She didn't blame me. Didn't yell at me like your dad did. I wanted her to. I felt terrible that you'd died even with me right there again. But she just hugged me. Insisted I couldn't blame myself."

"And you shouldn't," Lucy told him softly before another sob hitched in her throat and she was crying again. "The first thing I remember and it's my _death..._" Lucy cried, lightly hitting his chest in frustration.

Natsu kissed the top of her head while rubbing her back. "It's okay, Luce. At least you're getting them back! There are other, happier memories that might return before too long, right?"

Lucy nodded, but didn't say anything.


End file.
